Friday, November 16, 2007

A friend of mine works for the Landscape Management Office in Prospect Park. The LMO maintains all of the trees and other botanics in the park. They are also in charge of all new plantings. Anyway, I received a funny email from him last night about an encounter with a hawk.

The crew has been cutting down large, invasive trees adjacent to the Tunnel Arch to open up the area for new, native plantings. On this particular day, while one worker cut through the trunk with a chainsaw, a few others tugged on ropes that they had attached to the tree. The tree swayed from side to side as they alternately pulled and released the ropes. While this was going on, a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk flew in and perched on a nearby limb. As he watched, his head moved back and forth, following the swinging tree as if he were watching a tennis match. When the tree began to fall, he watched it go passed him, and then flew off after it crashed to the ground.

At first I thought that the young hawk was just curious or foolish, then I realized that there was probably a good reason for his interest in the activities. He was watching to see if any squirrels came tumbling out of the tree.